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1996 was year of many great and some not so great events. President Clinton won his 2^nd term; the Unabomber was arrested; the Centennial Olympics commenced with Muhammed Ali lighting the Olympic Torch, and The Birdcage was released.

Adapted from the 1978 French Version of the movie, La Cage Aux Folles, the 1996 adaptation is a hilarious yet very insightful comedy that opened a window into the LGBTQ Community of modern Miami, which was still met with hesitancy and uncertainty from the more rural and central states.

Set in beautiful South Beach, Miami, Armand Goldman (Robin Williams) is the gay owner of the famous drag nightclub, The Birdcage. Albert, (Nathan Lane) his partner and the show’s main act as “Starina,” (Albert in drag) performs there every night. The two live together above the club in an apartment and have a guatamalen housekeeper, Agador (the hilarious Hank Azaria). Albert also constantly hounds Armand for a palimony agreement, which Armand always shrugs off. They have also raised Armand’s son, Val, from a previous one night stand with a woman since he was a baby, and Albert considers himself Val’s “mother”.

One evening, Val comes home from college to tell his dad that he has met a girl named Barbara, and they are in love and want to marry.  Armand first plays at disapproval but is elated to hear this news and congratulates Val and even Barbara on the phone. He shares the news with Albert the next morning who thinks “Vali” is too young. 

Enter Barbara and her family: the Keelys are an ultraconservative family with Barbara’s father, Senator Kevin Keely, (Gene Hackman) being the co-head of the conservative group, the coalition of moral order. Barbara’s mother is the ever soft spoken, innocent housewife, Lousie, (Dianne Wiest). Scandal ensues when Kevin’s co-founder of the group and Senator is found dead in the bed of an underage African American prostitute! Louise, in order to shift the attention away from the Keelys, suggests that they pay Barbara’s boyfriend and his family a nice visit and begin talks of planning a respectable wedding.

Meanwhile, Barbara has lied to her parents about who Armand and Albert really are. She has told them that Armand is a cultural attache to Greece, and Albert is a housewife. And that their last name is not GOLDMAN but COLEMAN; therefore, they are NOT Jewish.

Val must also keep with the lies in order to save his relationship. Therefore, he asks his father to go along with the charade to get rid of Armand for the evening, making the apartment look “straight” and asking his real mother, Kathrine, to attend dinner with the Keelys. Armand refuses at first, not wanting to change for anyone. But, later, he concedes as he loves his son and wants his happiness.

From here on out, hilarity ensues with Armand trying to get rid of Albert and the latter, eventually finding out and showing up as “Mother Goldman” to greet the Keelys. Agador “Spartacus”, the now Greek housekeeper and “chef”, adds his own mayhem to the already disastrous evening with shrimp and egg soup and inappropriate, or rather, pornographic  chinaware.

Eventually, the Keelys find out the truth and attempt to leave. However, the paparazzi/news stations have followed them to South Beach in hopes of getting Senator Keely on TV. Realizing they cannot stay in the apartment forever, Armand and Albert hatch a plan and dress the Keelys in drag and sneak them out of the club. End Credits show Barbara and Val tying the knot with one side of the Church filled with conservative guests and the other side filled with anything but!

The whole movie has a feel good aura about it and showcases the extreme extent parents go through to make their children happy even if it means changing who they are. But it also has a sadness about it and, of course, ignorance for a way of life. The fact that Armand and Albert and their household had to change who they were to please others resonates deeply with what the LGBTQ community went through and still goes through even now 23 years after the release of the film. Although there has been much headway since the release to understand and embrace the different types of loves, it still stands that some do not tolerate it and are ignorant to it as the Keelys were. Entertaining as The Birdcage is, the harshness of reality is sprinkled throughout the movie through many humor techniques, and one can stand to learn a lot from them. As Armand tells Val “I don’t want to be someone else…Yes, I wear foundation. Yes, I live with a man. Yes, I’m a middle aged fag. But I know who I am Val. It took me 20 years to get here, and I’m not going to let some idiot senator destroy that.” Touche Armand. Touche!